“I felt like I was flying”: Oxilio, the revolutionary exoskeleton-chair gets Marianna, a Béziers resident, moving again

Marianna Paiva, biterroise a perdu son autonomie suite à un grave AVC en décembre dernier. – DR

An Oxilio walking unit. – DIRTY TOOLS

The device can be used both indoors and outdoors. It folds up and takes up no more space than a wheelchair in a car. – DIRTY TOOLS

The challenge of Damien Roche, founder of the company Lifebloom at the origin of Oxilio, is audacious, since it is nothing more and nothing less than giving life back upright, to those who have lost it, “it is something very powerful”. A Béziers resident, Marianna Paiva, following a coma from which she wakes up, with many after-effects. Having set out to meet the general public, this device could soon find its place in rehabilitation rooms, university hospitals and in private homes!

“I was in Paris with my family for the holidays. I remember having a headache that was so bad that I had to go to the emergency room, and yet I'm not a wimp!”, tells Marianna Paiva.

Three weeks in a coma, one month in intensive care

The life of this 51-year-old woman from Béziers is turned upside down. Three weeks in a coma and one month in intensive care follow.“When I wake up, I can move my eyes, my left side is deficient. I have lost all autonomy. I am conscious, intubated, the sound does not come out. They explain to me that I have had an internal hemorrhage, in short, a stroke”.

She then meets Claire Kemlin, a trained physiotherapist and now clinical manager at Lifebloom, a Lille start-up that has been developing Oxilio since 2019, an intuitive medical device assisting dependent people, who can then get up and walk alone in complete safety. “And live again standing up!”, summarizes Damien Roche, founder of the company Lifebloom at the origin of Oxilio

Combination of exoskeleton and wheelchair

It combines exoskeleton and wheelchair. It weighs 39 kg, is foldable and takes up no more space than a wheelchair in a car. The user is not harnessed, but is located inside.“It's Robocop”, Marianna writes when she is offered the opportunity to be among the first 150 to test Oxilio. “At first glance, the machine is impressive, a patient tells me to go for it. After all, I have nothing to lose. My morale is at its lowest”.

“With Oxilio, you can get up on your own. It's a permanent tool. The patient who is prescribed Lifebloom-one therapy will benefit from the on-board systems for analyzing autonomous activity and gait. A digital tablet provides new content and support methods”. This is how the machine helps to accelerate the rehabilitation phase, because“This can happen”outside of rehabilitation sessions, throughout the day, and without assistance”.

After €4 million of investment (including €800,000 in equity), Oxilio is the revolutionary alternative that restores the ability to get up, walk alone, and “become an actor in the rehabilitation room, whose walls are pushed out. We only take a few steps. It's all the time and everywhere. It goes well beyond walking”.

“Nothing seems lost to me”

Once she arrived at Pitié Salpêtrière in February, the Béziers native was unable to stand without the help of a caregiver. She grabbed Oxilio, “but he's the one who adopted me for 7 weeks”, she jokes. “I feel the effects immediately, I'm standing, I'm not afraid of falling and above all, I don't need someone 24/7! I do my physiotherapy alone. I feel like I'm flying, free. Good. And I find a semblance of joy, because nothing seems lost to me”. Now, Marianna can go and regain her means, “the engine is me ! I feel alive again because hope returns". In the corridors of the hospital, the machine piques curiosity, arouses goodwill, “it resocializes me in a way".

The progress is dazzling. Morale soars, as does his verticalization. “I am in a day hospital and I only want one thing, to go home to Béziers where I fully intend to get rid of my cane from now on.”

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